Google Code Jam 2003 is
a programming contest open to people around the world. Participants
has a limited time to solve problems using one of these programming
languages, C++, Java, C# or VB.NET. Correct solutions submitted soonest
get the highest score.

From now to October 17 is a practice period. Several hundred
participants have already tried to solve the sample
problems. I collected some interesting statistics from the practice arena. Java was
the top language choice used by almost half of the entries. Others
chose C++ and C#. A few used VB.

Some of the best C++ solutions are great example of generic
programming. STL is also lot more powerful than Java's collection
utilities. While STL and template can be dauntingly complex, the C++
wizards show that they can be very productive tools.